Case not closed

Six months into the year, detectives in the Savannah Police Department are working to solve seven uncleared homicides since Jan. 1.

Although the numbers are slightly better than this time last year, Maj. Willie Lovett, the commander of criminal investigations, hopes to bring the rates even higher.

"There are very few cases that we don't know who actually committed them," Lovett said.

There have been 15 homicides in the city.

Seven are listed as open cases. One was ruled a justifiable homicide.

How to help

Anyone with information on any of the unsolved homicides from this year, or past years, is asked to call the Savannah Police Department at 232-4141, or Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 234-2020.

Clearance rates

The national average homicide clearance rate is 69 percent. Last year, the Savannah Police Department had a 49 percent clearance rate. So far this year, the rate is 53 percent.

Arrests have been made in five, and two more fall under the heading of"exceptional clearance," a homicide already cleared by its circumstances, such as a murder/suicide.

One of those is the King's Cove Apartments death of Virginia Wilson on Tuesday. The suspect, Roderick Ricardo Matthews, shot his wife and then shot himself.

Matthews died Friday at Memorial Health University Medical Center.

The other such case this year, Lovett said, is the May shooting death of Edmund Cohen. Cohen, 18, was allegedly shot by Keith Smalls, who just minutes later, was killed himself by an unknown third party.

Because the suspect in Cohen's homicide is dead, police consider it cleared.

In several of the current cases, Lovett said, detectives know who did it, but they can't necessarily prove it in court.

"Just knowing who killed someone is not enough," he said. "That's one of the things that's so frustrating, when they put a lot of work into a case."

Although Lovett's not pleased with the current clearance rate, he expects it to get better.

Even as his officers get new cases, they continue to work on the old. In fact, they hope to have a suspect in custody in the January Cypress Landing Apartments homicide in the next two weeks.

"Every now and then, someone who has interest in the case will come forward," Lovett said.

When that happens, even if that person doesn't want to testify, the 15 detectives in the homicide unit check out the information and continue to build their cases.

With about 70-80 percent of local homicides related in some way to drugs, Lovett said, people need to remember that lifestyle is very often a contributor to danger.

"There are very few homicides where people just get killed for no reason," he said. "You can't tell people how to live, but if you live under those circumstances, it greatly reduces your chances of survival."

Often those circumstances lead to difficulties getting witnesses to testify in court, or even tell police what they might have seen.

"It's true we play a major part in it, but citizens are just as responsible," Lovett said. "I think it's their duty to report what they see."

Crime and public safety reporter Paula Reed Ward can be reached at 652-0360 or at paulaw@savannahnow.com.